By Justin Fedich | The Selma Times-Journal

This offseason has been quite a learning process for the first Southside volleyball team in four years.

First year head coach Samantha Henry and the Southside volleyball team began learning volleyball in May after getting enough funding to bring back the volleyball program.

On Tuesday, Sept. 1, the Panthers will open the season for a sport that was unfamiliar to all of them just a few months ago.

Henry, who was solely Southside’s track and field coach last season, said she wanted to give girls at Southside a chance to play another sport.

Although Henry had no background in volleyball, she grew up playing and coaching a variety of sports and was excited to learn a new sport.

“I said I wanted to do it for the children because they kept asking me, ‘We need to have something else to do,’ so I said OK, I’ll do volleyball,” Henry said.

Southside had to cut the volleyball program four years ago due to a lack of funds combined with a lack of interest. The interest grew over the years, however, and this season the girls were excited as ever to start a new season despite knowing nothing about the sport.

The training began three months ago on YouTube. Henry and her players watched as many videos as they could to learn some of the fundamentals of volleyball so they knew what they started playing.

Henry said she was impressed with how quickly her team progressed over the summer.

During a play date in late July, Southside visited Selma High School to play against a number of teams around the area.

Southside was competitive with Selma and some of the other teams in attendance. Henry said that gave her players confidence they could compete at a high level this season.

“It was a lot of players, but for the most part, the teams that we played, we were really really close as far as winning,” Henry said.

Since her players are new to volleyball, Henry brought in coaches from the outside during the summer to help her team train.

The coaches from George Washington Carver High School and Huntingdon College, both from Montgomery, traveled to Southside during the summer to run a clinic for the players.

In addition, a couple players who were members of Southside’s last volleyball team four years ago have been leading practices for Southside. Henry said that bringing in experience has allowed her team to learn the game quicker than she could have imagined.

“I look for good things to happen with them,” Henry said. “They seem to be dedicated.”

Southside opens the season hosting Keith High School on Sept. 1 at 1 p.m.